Sin in Soft Focus: Pre-Code Hollywood

In this exhaustively researched, beautifully illustrated book, author Vieira does an exceptional job. Recently, I have been drawn to the fascinating world of Pre-Code Cinema. There were some really realistically seedy, controversial and revealing films made in the Hollywood of the late twenties and early thirties. Many films which have been previously believed lost or destroyed have been rescued for the public to enjoy once more on either video or TCM. Hot stuff for the depression era! Fascinating films of the era include: THE STORY OF TEMPLE DRAKE which starred the unique Miriam Hopkins. In this one, she plays the title character who is lured into the underworld, gets raped - and finds she likes it (!). Even sweetly saccharine Loretta Young had a dark-side: check out MIDNIGHT MARY. What I find ironic is that to many people, many vintage films are considered too pretty or unrealistic. This book proves otherwise!! A thoroughly fascinating venture into a little-known side of Hollywood which existed a scant half-dozen years: the era of Pre-Code talkies. A very informative and revealing laboured work of art - and a fine resource - for fans of vintage film.

The consensus on this book has been uniformly enthusiastic, and for good reason. Mark Vierra has created an accurate, breezily written and artistically informed pre-Code history, far superior to Thomas Doherty's Pre-Code Hollywood and worthy of mention (and bookshelf kinship) with Mick LaSalle's magisterial Complicated Women. Vierra knows the movies, has seen them and, I think importantly, likes them -- likes them enough to communicate their splendid splendor to 28-year-old converts like myself and long-time fans alike. And what BEAUTIFUL PHOTOS. You just want to cry for the beauty.

I don't know why some of the other reviewers don't like this book. It's the best I've read on this period, by an author who has extensive knowledge of HOW THESE MOVIES WERE MADE. This isn't another of those "what these movies mean to me" volumes, or another post-modern psychotrash analysis. If you want a detailed look at this fascinating era in movie-making, you couldn't do better than this. The photos are gorgeous, too.

This coffee-table volume may look like another of the many good Hollywood photo books, and the title may promise some photo-titillation, but in fact this is a serious book dealing with movies in the era of the infamous morality "code." The many photos support the text and make for satisfying perusing all by themselves. Although not the scandalous, x-rated outtakes you may have expected (hoped for?), the photos are all interesting, partly because many of them seldom appear in Hollywood picture books. The well-written text details the code, difficulties enforcing it, and the personalities who devised and promulgated it. Code enforcement apparently found it had to deal more with moral implications, suggested relationships, and what might be going on just outside the frame than with what showed up onscreen (which may explain the absence of racy pix). This doubly satisfying book certainly belongs in the library of any movie scholar or serious fan and adds to the stature of its author as a movie historian..